Reviewed by Dave Coward (December 2010)
Our thanks to Vintage Figher Series for providing this review kit.
Availability: Readily available from retailers such as Hannants and Relish Models at around £65.00
Initial assessment…
This is the second aircraft from this company, the first being a P-40B Tomahawk, and look out for the next in the series which will be a Spitfire Mk.XIX due out early next year [we’ll be reviewing that one here first in your SMN – so watch this space! Ed]. But back to this offering and it comes in the form of the bubbletop P-47D Thunderbolt and the first thing I can say about it is it is BIG, have a look at the picture of it with a 1:48th P-47 next to it.
On opening the rather large box you are confronted by a lot of plastic and some very nice decals and an A4 instruction sheet. The instruction are well laid out but the A4 sheet covers two pages so each page is effectively only A5 in size , this may be quite small for some modellers but they are clear and logical in there build sequence. The 3 view drawings are again quite small and could be considered as lacking in detail (especially the lack of colour call outs!!) but there is plenty of reference material out there that is freely available.
There decals come on three sheets and cover 6 different airframes covering the USAAF, RAF, RNZAF and the French airforce.
- P-47D-25-RE, 42-26640, WZ-X, 84 FS/78 FG
- P-47D-25-RE, 42-26635, MX-E, 82 FS/78 FG
- P-47D, unknown, NV-K, RNZAF
- P-47D-28-RE, KJ-159, RAF (Thunderbolt Mk.II)
- P-47D-22-RE, 42-26520. 80, French Air Force
- P-47D-27-RE, 42-27295, 23, French Air Force
The decals themselves are well produced, in register and cover all the individual markings along with the common stencilling.
The plastic itself comes on 23 individual sprues all packaged in separate bags along with a two bags containing the wings and fuselage halves. There is also a separate clear sprue and a vinyl plastic sprue containing the main wheels and a nicely moulded pilot figure.
Looking at the plastic and the build sequence you notice that the detail is crisp and not overdone (as some Trumpeter kits tend to be) and the Vintage fighter Company have not gone down the route of lots of interior detail that will never see the light of day once the kit is assembled. What you get is relevant and of high quality, my only slight qualm are the elevator control surfaces are moulded in neutral positions , but in the big scheme of things this is a minor quibble, that said the flaps and rudder are separate.
Starting the interior with the cockpit this is well detailed with the throttle quadrant having separate levers but one item missing is a set of seat belts that would have been nice if you decided not to use the supplied pilot. There a two gunsight options and the main instrument panel is make up of three layers that should respond well to some careful painting and dry brushing.
A quick dry fitting of the fuselage sides shows a positive and clean fit and the surface detail is excellent. The wings come as separate sides that slot onto a main spare that comes out of the fuselage and both sides have the options of visible machine guns with the port wing also having an ammunition bay (there are two options here – a full ammunition bay and an empty one).
The tail and turtle deck come as a separate unit very much like the 1:48th Hasegawa and Tamiya kits which indicate the option of a P-47M later on which will keep all you Thunderbolt fans happy.
Moving onto the engine , this is nicely detailed and as mentioned earlier this kit doesn’t go overboard on those areas which won’t be seen but what is visible is very nice and what really adds icing to the cake is that the shape of the cowling has been correctly captured which is a major draw back with the Trumpeter kit. Add to this the fact that it comes in four pieces that can be opened (just like the real thing) to show of the engine – some wiring and a little scratch building and this will look great.
There are four propellers in the kit as the type depended upon the user so check your references especially if you intend to use aftermarket decals.
The kit contains a nice array of weapons and fuel tanks so you can get that `all tooled up` look.
- 108 gallon underwing metal tanks (2)
- 108 gallon underwing paper tanks (2)
- Bazooka rocket launchers (2)
- 500 pound bombs (2)
- Flat metal centre line drop tank (1)
The clear sprue is once again well produced with go detail and clarity.
Finally there is a Vinyl plastic sprue containing the main wheels and a pilot figure. The wheels have some well rendered detail and the pilot, though not everyone’s cup of tea, looks great and I personally will be using him to give some scale to this kit.
Conclusion…
This is a well produced kit in one of the more unusual scales that will make into a really big and impressive kit – I’m really looking forward to making this but have no idea were to put it as my 1:24th Mosquito has taken up all the spare display room I have !!!
Highly recommended
Dave C.